Census of India, 1911 .. . the Chin Hills two out of every three idiots are afflicted COMPARISON WITH 1891. 351 with goitre. In this province, however, it is less easy to trace a connectionbetween deaf-mutism, with its allied afflictions, and the water supply. It is mostcommon in the lower valleys, and persons living at a higher elevation or in theopen plains are comparatively immune. It is popularly believed that deaf-mutism, like insanity, is often the resultof consanguineous marriages. Such marriages have been assigned as thereason for the prevalence of the affliction amongst the Nagas, but
Census of India, 1911 .. . the Chin Hills two out of every three idiots are afflicted COMPARISON WITH 1891. 351 with goitre. In this province, however, it is less easy to trace a connectionbetween deaf-mutism, with its allied afflictions, and the water supply. It is mostcommon in the lower valleys, and persons living at a higher elevation or in theopen plains are comparatively immune. It is popularly believed that deaf-mutism, like insanity, is often the resultof consanguineous marriages. Such marriages have been assigned as thereason for the prevalence of the affliction amongst the Nagas, but, if a widerview be taken, it is clear that the statistics lend no support to the Dravidians of Southern India, Avho practise cousin-marriage extensively,are far less afflicted than the people of many other parts to whom thisinstitution is unknown. iol. In all countries males suffer to a sreater extent than females from pistnbntion Diagram showiiig the numler of deaf-mutes per 100,000persons of each this infirmity, as from all otherdefects of a congenital diagram in the marginshows tiiat its ])revalence isgreatest between the ages of 10and 20 and then drops steadilyuntil the age of 50, after which avery slight rise is being a congenitaldefect, and persons sufferingfrom it being relatively short-lived, the lowest age shouldbe that of maximum prevalence,and there should be a steady fallin the proportions in eachsucceeding age-period. Thereason why the proportions belowthe age of 10 are smaller thanthat in the next higher agegroup is obviously that jiarentsare reluctant to admit theexistence of this defect in theirchildren so long as there isthe slightest hope that it is merely a case of retarded development. The slightrise after the age of 50, on the other hand, is due to the fact that, in spite of the<5are which Ava^ taken to eliminate cases of senile deafness from the returns, theenumerators still occasionally entered a
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